rene balcer

By Jane Murphy
In last week's two-part 'Law & Order: Los Angeles' -- the first new episode since the show went on a retooling hiatus Dec. 1 -- the reset button was officially hit for the freshman series.

For fans of the show (which has seen its fair share of drama, even though it's only aired 10 episodes to date) the revamp brings us something old, something new and something borrowed, hoping this marriage between the franchise and the City of Angels lasts a good long time.

And of course, there's also something blue with Alfred Molina's character Ricardo Morales leaving the DA's office in the aftermath of the shooting death of Det. Rex Winters (Skeet Ulrich) to come back to the beat as a detective.

AOL TV caught up with executive producer Rene Balcer, co-creator of the show with 'L&O' head honcho Dick Wolf, to hear all about Morales' big switch and other cast changes for what he's calling "LOLA 2.0."

"There are many factors that finally convince [Morales] he'd be a happier camper back as a cop ... It's about how the case is being handled, the political influences that come to bear on the prosecution."

There's this artist out there named Brandon Bird who has a special
place in his heart for everything that is Law and Order. I own his original Law and Order coloring
book ("An Adventure to Color!"), which follows Briscoe and Curtis as they seek a murder suspect and then on
to the trial. The last page is a word scramble to figure out the verdict: LYTIGU. Funny stuff.

Now Brandon
has it in for Law and Order: SVU. He has created some Valentines featuring the main characters from that
franchise. My favorite is Ice-T, with the saying, "I'm on your tail". You can actually order these things for
Valentine's Day. Check 'em out here.

The third successful spin-off of the original Law and Order series is about to reach its 100th episode, a
milestone for any television show. This Sunday's all-new Criminal Intent features the original cast members,
Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe, who have been alternating episodes with new detectives Chris Noth and Annabella
Sciorra. The episode is called Slither and it was written by executive producer Rene Balcer. The episode is
about a European gang leader who likes to kill tourists. By the way, I think the word 'slither' is meant to be a
description of the main criminal because the show description doesn't mention anything about snakes. The episode also
features Olivia D'Abo, a character whom viewers voted to keep alive during a poll in the show's fourth season.
Criminal Intent airs Sundays at 9 pm on NBC.